Tag: mobile app development

Why is Apple’s Swift the Future of Mobile App Development?

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Recently, Apple saw an uptrend in its app downloading number. It is estimated that there were about 850 downloads in a second through the app store. This came as excellent news for Apple which paid about $30 billion in the last seven years for their app store.

Latest versions of OS X, WatchOS and Swift have come up making the process faster. They are focusing more on apps which are offering high productivity gains. Creating new terms like the 360-degree view of the customer which will help them in high productivity gains.

Apps are quite intelligent and they demand high investment. According to a survey done by Apple, it is said that 98% of the top notch companies use iOS apps. Each time Apple announces the latest OS, people prefer to switch for the newer features and improvements. Apple always aims at running maximum iOS devices on the latest version.

Apple’s Swift is to be the next big thing for iPhone app developers. This is because Swift is much faster and efficient as compared to Objective-C. Moreover, the language is being made an Open Source language, which will benefit the developers to a great extent.

Prompt programming and quick results are two most important things developers expect from a good programming language. This is what makes a language famous and highly used. Swift is likely to replace Objective-C and even C for programming on the iOS platforms.

Because of numerous features, Swift has become the most sought after programming language for iPhone app developers who are keen on developing newer apps. As per the plans, Apple is optimizing Swift for better performance. It is also working on improving the language. Starting from scratch, it has been working on the complete mobile app development tool chain. Here are certain reasons which will compel you to start using Swift for developing apps for iPhones and iPads.

You can easily read Swift programming language. There are no such keywords or types which will make this language a complex one. In other words, you don’t need to take care much about the semi-colons and other rules. Concentrate more on the logic and get your work done. You don’t need to make use of unnecessary parenthesis for nested functions. All you have to do is separate all the parameters with commas and go ahead with coding.

It is easy to maintain coding done using Swift. When you are coding using C, iPhone app developers need to maintain two files so as to improve efficiency and build time. This adds work as well as maintenance. You are not able to concentrate on the bigger picture. Here you have to manually take care of everything which is quite tedious.

Pointer variables are quite important in Objective C. If a pointer variable is null and you call a function using this pointer, no major action will take place, while in Swift, you only have to remember the optional types and value types and specify them in the methods. This highly simplifies the bug-fixing process.

Swift excels well in memory management. It has the ability to unify the language in the best way. You can manage memory leakage which is quite common in Objective C. The iPhone app developers don’t have to think much when it comes to developing apps. High-performance memory was a huge problem which has been solved greatly with Swift.

Less coding is what developers prefer these days. Swift has got the ability to reduce the amount of coding for simple logics. It includes modern programming practices which you won’t find in Objective-C. There are no special string tokens. The compiler has to concentrate only on the type system.

Speed is a high priority these days when it comes to programming. Dropping the usual C conventions has highly improved the quality of Swift. Swift is nearly on levels with C++ for both the FFT and Mandelbrot algorithms. As per the research done by Primate Labs, the GEMM algorithm performance is quite good and you can trust its quality well.

In this generation, it is more important to create apps which won’t put more loads on the App Store. Moreover, you can make use of Swift to create apps fast and perfectly. This will surely help you come up with new creations. Swift programming language is, without doubt, the future of iOS app development.

Google Introduces Online Programming Courses in India to Boost Application Developer Ecosystem!

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

Search engine giant Google, and online education company Udacity, has launched IT courses in India to tap millions of software developers scrambling for jobs.

“The programme is for bridging the gap in creating world-class applications by the Indian developer community. Indian developers made only 2% of the top 1,000 apps on Google Play.,” said Google India managing director Rajan Anandan.

The program costs Rs. 9,800 per month and takes an average of 6 to 9 months, with Udacity refunding 50 percent of the tuition fee after the completion of course.

“Our aim is to democratize education for everyone to help the people to get their dream job. We are happy to launch the Android Nanodegree course in India in partnership with Tata Trusts and Google,” said Sebastian Thrun, Udacity founder and Chief Executive.

In addition to this, three companies have offered 1,000 free scholarships, out of which, Tata Trusts will offer 500 scholarships to the developers of Nano Degree programme.

In India, a large number of engineering and IT specialists have left the country to reach the top in the US corporate world.

12 Trends That Are Affecting Mobile App Development

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

The increasing interest in smartphones is growing the mobile app developing industry day by day. This has highly increased the value of mobile app marketing as well.

Here are 12

  1. Rapid Mobile Development

Enterprises are struggling when it comes to managing mobile apps. With increasing consumer demands, businesses are keen on launching products as early as possible. Thus, this year will see a quick development of the app and not spending much time on the development of the same. In this method, Mobile app developers are always alert about customers’ demand and produce accordingly.

  1. Cloud-Driven

You will see cloud technology playing an excellent role in developing apps this season. People these days use multiple mobile devices and this has compelled developers to focus more on the ability to integrate as well as sync them in one.

  1. App Security

Last year saw many reports and rumors regarding hacking and leaks of information. Hackers are quite smart these days and they can easily pick up those security gaps which will let them get certain confidential information. Hence, mobile app developers should focus more on the security of the device as it is quite a serious issue these days.

  1. Beacon and Location-Based Wi-Fi Services

Thanks to Beacon technology, there is hardly any difference between online and offline service apps. Apple has been successful in integrating this feature in iOS. These days, users are making good use of the internet, which has compelled operators to increase the rates of data plans. In years to come, you can use Wi-Fi for a host of things, other than just internet. In the last month, a platform called Wi-Fi Max was launched to help customers to take help of all its services and content.

  1. Wearable Tech

You can now literally wear technology in your hands, mainly thanks to wearable watches. This year, wearable watches have been highly used by people to improve the productivity of their business. This can be due to the fact that mobile app developers are focusing more on developing such technologies rather than concentrating only on smart phones and tablets.

  1. M-commerce, Banking and Mobile Payments

As per the statistics, most of the transactions and sales are to be made online using smart phones. In coming years, you will see the advent of m-commerce and its extensive use. You will also see payments being done using mobiles instead of debit or credit cards. Apple Pay and Google Wallet would gain higher importance.

  1. Internet of Things (IoT)

The Internet can now be connected to almost every device. Apps would adapt to this with new features. It will compel mobile app developers to go with improved services and experiences.

  1. Big Data and App Analytics

Decision makers will give more importance to app performance tracking. They will now concentrate more on big data and analytics in this year. Therefore, they will focus more on data collection methods which help them to reach their clients’ expectations.

  1. The Growth of Enterprise Apps

As per the predictions of IDC, about one-third of enterprises will stress on mobile application development so as to deploy apps across organizations. This will surely help B2B application exchanges.

  1. In- App Advertising and Purchasing

As per a recent study done by Juniper Research, in-app services on devices are going to help a lot and this will spread across all the mobile devices by 2016. There would be various new ad formats in the coming days.

  1. User Experience First

With the number of smart phones and tablets increasing manifold, app user experience is going to gain more importance over time. Stress will be put on analytics data to create excellent experiences. Hence, developers will have to keep user experience in mind during mobile app development.

  1. App Marketing

With each passing year, you can see apps evolving even more. Therefore, marketers will now focus a lot more on user engagement. App Store Optimization will gain high importance and you will get to learn a great deal from them.

With so many trends on the rise, all developers need to keep them in mind and change their development process accordingly. There would be new trends in the coming days. You need to stay on top of them to remain relevant.

4 Amazing Tips for You to Develop Quality Educational Apps

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

During a casual talk one evening,
a friend who owns a teaching institute told me excitedly

“Man, we’re launching an app for our institute”
I was surprised. “Wow! Technology sure is growing”
“heavy competition, our mobile app development team just sent the app in”,
he said and showed me the app

I eagerly looked at the app,
only to be disappointed

Why?

What greeted me upon booting the app was a pathetically design. I didn’t know where to click or how to navigate. This should not happen to you.

Here are a few things from my experience that might help you.

The educational field is developing fast these days, and so is technology. Making interactive apps for education through eLearning has therefore become one of the latest trends. It is a great way to combine education with fun and excitement.

The only thing is that designing and developing an educational app requires a lot of patience and effort. It is not like any regular app, as the expectations are high. Here are a few checkpoints to keep in mind before developing an educational app:

Research

One needs to do a great deal of research before designing an app. For instance, you need to keep the target audience in mind and develop according to their tastes and interests. You need to incorporate a lot of things like cultural values, correct usage of words, and so on.

Proper design

Before finalising the design of the app, you need to contemplate various factors including the age of the targeted audience. For example, you can add cartoons and vibrant colours for young kids, and may be a professional look with subtle shades for corporate learners. This one factor done effectively can grab a lot of attention to your app; eventually making it a huge success.

Interactive learning

Learning should be interactive to make it interesting. The learners’ attention needs to be captured at each stage to make the full impact of eLearning course. You can use tools to make it more interactive.

Challenge the learners

You could include challenges like milestones, puzzles, quizzes, or even small games to test the knowledge of the learners and build healthy competition among the users. High scores can be tabulated and friends could even challenge each other to make learning more interesting. This sort of gamification does help the students learn with more zeal, encouraging them to perform better.

Making the most out of technology can make learning more exciting. It is an interesting concept that can help improve the educational system to a great extent. After all, people perform better if they love what they do!

Recommended Read: 5 Must-have Mobile App Development Platform Features

No More App-Scanning With iPhone iOS 9

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

A new report indicates a shift in the advertisement policy by Apple aiming at strengthening the user privacy of its third-party apps. This will prevent the advertiser’s to access the data about the apps installed on your iPhone or iPad.

The provision to collect data of the apps by Facebook and Twitter installed on your devices for targeting ads is being limited, according to Amir Efrati of The Information. He also gave an example of a user who has installed games, even the paid ones – where advertisers can show ads on games that are not already installed on the device.

However with the upcoming iOS 9 update this fall, the industry giants are more focussed about protecting user privacy. They are ensuring protection of data from other installed apps for ad targeting by preventing its access by other app developers.

Efrati explains, “As part of its recent privacy push, Apple earlier this month said it would shut down an increasingly popular practice by companies like Twitter to scan people’s iPhones and iPads to see which apps are installed. They used such data, which is akin to Web-browsing history, to target in-app advertisements to individuals.”

Inaddition to this iOS 9 update will also put a stop to the exploitation of an API in iOS called “canopenURL”advertisers which enables access of app download data. The latest update also boasts of a new feature that may allow users to temporarily delete apps to make more space for the new software update installation. Apple had earlier mentioned this feature at the WWDC when it said it had developed a method where iOS updates would require less free storage.

The intelligent deletion of apps in the latest update together warns used ‘insufficient space for download’ and then gives provision to temporarily delete apps. Reinstallation of the apps is done automatically once the software update installation is completed, that too with no loss of user data. Even though this feature is available with the beta version, there’s no confirmation as of yet of its inclusion in the final build that will be available to users this fall.

5 Must-have Mobile App Development Platform Features

Posted on by Super Admin Testreveal

As mobile app development takes the centre stage, we need to look beyond the traditional software development methodologies. Uniform packaging of application, increased time to market, issues with respect to security & integration and cost overruns are the drivers that prompt developers to adopt a mobile app development platform. The mobile app development platform provides uniform approach to develop, deploy, test and manage the application. The right choice of mobile app development platform is an important factor before beginning with mobile app development services.

So what are the characteristics one should look for when choosing Mobile App development platform?

Every platform has some pros and cons. However these are the 5 features which should be there for sure in any mobile app development platform:

Also Read: 

Can a Mobile App Development Company in India Produce Quality Apps?

1. Multi-Multi feature

A mobile app development platform should have the capability to support all types of mobile devices including phone, tablets and phablets.  The platform should have the capability to configure the features across devices with minimal customization. If the same platform can be used to provide mobile app development services for multiple OS, it can be an added benefit as developer does not have to work on multiple development platforms.

2. Integration Adaptors

Mobile apps do not always work in silos. It has to be interfaced with multiple back end systems. The pre-configured integration adaptor helps in reducing the integration efforts. It reduces the overall development time and cost. The interface does not have to be built from scratch each time. Thus, with pre-configured integration adaptor, uniform approach can be adopted for interface development and application packaging.

3. Security

Today, the mobile applications are not restricted to any specific boundary which is the case with software applications. The software applications are meant to be used only by in-premise executives. Since mobile and tablets stores confidential information such as mails, contact lists and credit card wallet details, it is important that security is built at various levels to restrict access to such data. This includes defining security at application and user levels to ensure that there are no security breaches.

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8 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Mobile App Development Company

Encryption is another important aspect of security. The data stored in app should also be encrypted. Thus mobile app development platform should provide the packages to implement security procedures. The availability of out of the box algorithms to encrypt the password or sensitive information can be an advantageous for developers.

Audit & governance

A mobile application platform should support audit (unbiased examination and evaluation) and governance. Mobile apps such as WhatsApp and Skype have become important means of communication. Therefore, mobile platforms should provide the functions and procedure to implement audit features. It should also provide the capability to enforce certain country specific restrictions.

Future Proof

A mobile application platform should be future proof.  It is necessary that the mobile app development platform should incorporate latest technologies and continue to evolve as new technologies are introduced.

Thus mobile development platforms with multi-device support, security and back-end integration capabilities significantly reduce the development efforts. This enables developers to concentrate on mobile app development services such as application design and workflow rather than on other issues.